When two amazing tools are offered by the same company, then it is a tough call to select one tool. QuickBooks is a well-known name in the accounting industry and it is the favorite accounting software for the outsourced accounting services providers like CapActix. But, when you ask an accountant to select a tool between QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online, then it is like asking a mother to select her favorite child out of the two – just impossible.

Both QuickBooks programs have their unique features and benefits. Where QuickBooks online is a cloud-based software with monthly billing services – on the contrary, QuickBooks Desktop is a locally installed software with the license. Apart from this basic difference, both programs have a different structure and design.

QuickBooks Online –

 QBO aka QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based accounting software that was introduced in 2004. Initially, it is a less developed software, then QuickBooks Desktop, but the company has been constantly adding new features to improve the functionality of the software. QBO is designed for accounting outsourcing and small scale businesses. Outsourcing for accounting firms become easier due to easy to share option of QuickBooks Online’s cloud setup.

Some of the robust accounting features are offered by the software including online payroll, interesting invoices, lending features, and more than 500 integrations. The points in favor of QuickBooks Online are –

• Easy to have a collaborative working environment due to cloud setup
• Easy to operate from any place
• Fixed monthly billing so no fixed setup or installation cost
• Unique lending feature
• Robust features

QuickBooks Desktop –

 It is a relatively old account software launched in 1992. So, its features and functions are going to be old as compared to QBO. However, still, the majority of the accounting firms are using this desktop version of the old software due to its good reputation and dynamic features. There are three different versions of QuickBooks Desktop software bundle available – QuickBooks Desktop Pro, QuickBooks Desktop Premier, and QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise. Here, Pro is for small businesses, Premier for medium and Enterprise for large organizations.

Every QuickBooks Desktop software comes with particular features such as expenses, tracking, job posting, 200+ integration and so much more. Things in the favor of QuickBooks Desktop –

• Solid features
• Traditional accounting
• Highly secure
• 200+ integration

Why Shift from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online?

Because of outsourcing for accounting firms, accounting practice has been changing rapidly. Today, traditional accounting trends are being replaced with new trends including outsourcing, remote working, and so on. Even outsourcing accounting in the US, UK, and other world’s leading nations have been adopted frequently. Thus, the traditional desktop version of QuickBooks isn’t sufficient to handle the modern accounting workflow where clients and accounting companies are working on the two different times zones. This is the reason why QBO is used in most of the accounting outsourcing in the USA.

Things to Consider While Migrating to QuickBooks Online

If you are an innovative accounting company and ready to embrace the new accounting requirements, then you need to slowly move your accounting operations from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. But, to smoothly conduct this move, you have to consider a couple of points –

Sort your Data

 Foremost, you have to prepare your QuickBooks Desktop data for the move. You have to ensure that your accounting data is well organized and arranged before moving to new software. To sort data, you have to consider a few things –

• Filter your data. Remove all the outdated files which you don’t require anymore so that you have fewer numbers of files to move.
• Wait till the month-end. Don’t shift your data in the middle of the month because this way you will unnecessarily increase your workload. Once you have prepared invoices, payrolls, reconciles and other statements for the month, only then start moving data.
• Create a backup. Before importing your accounting data to QBO always keep the backup of the entire data either on your computer or cloud storage space. If anything goes wrong while importing data, then the backup becomes your savior.
• Export within the timeframe. QBO gives 60 days of the time frame to export all the data from QuickBooks Desktop. But, if you exceed that, then you have to look for a QuickBooks ProAdvisor who can convert the files within 180 days.

Understand Bank Rules

You have to understand the bank rules in QBO to understand how Bank Feed Transactions are organized. On priority, set the criteria for the imported Bank Feed Transaction to explain QBO which fields to populate with specific data, such as Account and Name. You can even optimize bank rules by setting and/if criteria. For example, if you tell QBO that when the amount in “Office Expenses” increases up to $500, then categorize to a Fixed Asset account. By telling everything to QBO, in the beginning, will smooth a work process for you.

Update Client’s Workspace

For accounting firms, it is essential to customize their client’s workspace in QBO. The best way to do that would be creating a new Chrome person and next adding bookmarks for each screen. To smoothen the operation, you can list each bookmark in the chronological order. You can even download the QuickBooks Online app for better workflow establishment. QBO app is available for Windows and Mac both. Plus, the app is available for accounting firms and their clients both to ease out the workflow.

Also read 5 Steps To Hire a Remote QuickBooks Accountant From India

Train your Clients and Staff

You should conduct a QuickBooks Online learning workshop for your clients and staff members separately. It is very important to get your clients and staff on board before making such a big move. The training session should be divided into small segments so that you can follow up on previous feedback from your staff and clients to make a proper progress report. The training session will also help you understand how your clients have taken up the change and do your staff needs further assistance.

Keep an Eye on Clients

 After the shift, you have to closely observe your clients -to ensure that everything is going smoothly. Now, if you observe that the number of unaccepted transactions has increased, then this indicates that your clients are overwhelmed with the change. So, you have to here meet up with clients and try to clarify all of their doubts. If you don’t handle clients carefully after the change, then you might lose your clients.

Also read The Best Strategy to Maximize ROI by Outsourcing Accounting Services for CPA Firms

Change is Unavoidable

 It is the rule of nature to change things after some time. Thus, accounting firms need to shift from traditional QuickBooks Desktop to cloud-based QuickBooks Online for accounting outsourcing in the USA. The change might be a bit overwhelming in the beginning, but if you follow the protocol and get your clients and staff on board before the change, then you can smoothly move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

CapActix is a modern outsourced accounting service, thus we have made our move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. If you want to try our cloud-based outsourced accounting services, then get in touch via email – [email protected]. or can call on  +201-778-0509.